Some Russian Jews, acknowledged Ms.
Godik, support Vladimir Putin. A group of Russian Jews from Ulyanovsk [a city
of approximately 600,000, located on the middle stretch of the Volga River, 900
km/550 miles east of Moscow] even came to Crimea in support of Russian
annexation of Crimea, she stated. She finds Russian Jewish support of Mr.
Putin to be "embarrassing," she commented, but she "understands
their situation," i.e., she believes that many Russian Jews have been
coerced into making statements or undertaking certain actions favoring Russian
annexation of all or parts of Ukraine.
Regarding the Jewish situation in Ukraine,
foreigners often exaggerate the extent of antisemitism in the country. She
realizes that the foreigners are trying to be helpful, but not all of them are
as well-informed as they might be. Later, Ms. Godik said that, "Whatever
happens regarding Maidan, Jews will be blamed."
Inflation, said Ms. Godik, is about 40
percent. Due to devaluation of the hryvnia, UUJS activists cannot afford to
attend conferences abroad. On a local level, she stated, UUJS is unable to
charge participants very much for events, which limits its ability to engage
the top-level speakers that its members want. She doubts that the organization
will be able to continue its popular program of expeditions to places of Jewish
interest, because would-be travelers may be unable to pay the costs of
transportation, local accommodations, guides, etc.
Even more distressing, Ms. Godik continued,
the pensions of elderly people do not "stretch" to cover basic
needs; they cannot purchase the medicines essential to their well-being.
On a personal level, she acknowledged, she fears that the university at which
she is employed will be unable to pay her salary.
UUJS eagerly embraces partnerships
with other organizations, said Ms. Godik; they have worked with the Brodsky
synagogue (Rabbi Asman), Rabbi Bleich, the Embassy of Israel, and the Jewish
Agency - and will work with any of these groups again. Obviously, they also
work with UJS in Israel and WUJS in Europe. As productive as these
relationships have been, Ms. Godik continued, UUJS also is seeking new
initiatives that they can pursue on their own.
66. Rabbi Motti Neuwirth, who is
associated with Chief Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich and the Grand Choral Synagogue on
Schekavitskaya street in the Podil area of Kyiv, directs a program for young
adults between the ages of 25 and 35. Known as Morasha (Heb., heritage,
legacy), the program attracts 90 unique young people every week, 35-40 of
whom attend on any given day. Morasha convenes in a small, but clean and
well-furnished center in the basement of one of the synagogue buildings.
The
current crisis in Ukraine, said Rabbi Neuwirth, has encouraged people from
Morasha to emigrate to Israel. Five young couples have already gone,
and two more will leave for Israel soon. Their departures are a loss for his
community, he continued, but the leadership gaps that they leave create new
opportunities for others to step forward. He is strongly in favor of aliyah
and is pleased to "lose" participants in his Ukraine programs when
they go to Israel.
Rabbi
Motti Neuwirth supervises a range of programs intended to draw young adults to
Judaism and Jewish practice. Originally, he focused on day school graduates,
but now aims at a much broader segment of the Jewish community.
Photo: the writer.
A signature program of Morasha, said
Rabbi Neuwirth, is a 20-session class called Unlock Your Judaism. He
described it as a text-based, analytical course inspired by the popular
paperback Judaism for Dummies (Hungry Minds, 2001). Unlock Your
Judaism is followed by Upgrade Your Judaism, which students pursue
in chevruta (Heb., learning with a partner). Both of these
courses are scheduled for evenings between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m., so that people
may participate after work. Morasha also offers STARS Intensive, a more
comprehensive version of the original STARS (Student Torah Alliance for Russian
Speakers) course. Participants move into apartments owned by the synagogue and
participate in synagogue- and apartment-based learning and worship for 40 hours
every week while maintaining outside employment. Two of the four couples
enrolled in this program recently emigrated to Israel, Rabbi Neuwirth said, and
six men continue. Morasha no longer teaches any regular STARS classes, stated
Rabbi Neuwirth.
Morasha also manages a Shabbat Host program
in which 20 host families in Kyiv invite interested Jews to a traditional
Shabbat meal at their homes. Using a data base, a coordinator matches hosts
families and guests, attempting to assemble groups of people who are
compatible. Independent of local rabbis, the Shabbat Host program also
operates in Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk, albeit on a smaller scale than
in Kyiv.
Asked to comment on the impact of
Maidan and of the current conflict with Russia, Rabbi Neuwirth said that
Morasha participants were among the demonstrators on Maidan. Many Jews were
there, he observed. Due to increased tension and crime on the streets in
January and February, Rabbi Neuwirth continued, attendance at Morasha classes
and other activities dropped considerably during that period; in response,
Morasha posted its lectures on YouTube. Rabbi Bleich's synagogue community, he
added, is sufficiently concerned about future instability that they have developed
an evacuation plan, designating buses owned by the day school that will take
community members to a Karlin-Stolin community in Pinsk, a nearby city in
Belarus. They also have stored enough food to feed a large number of people at
their summer camp for two months.
67. Midrasha Tzionit was established
in Kyiv in 2001 as a center for Jewish Zionist education under the auspices of
the Jewish Agency for Israel. Over time, as economic pressure on the Jewish Agency
has grown, its interest in the Midrasha has decreased. Funders now include the
Genesis Philanthropy Group of Moscow, the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund, the
L.A. Pincus Fund for Jewish Education in the Diaspora (within the Jewish
Agency), and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, in
addition to the Jewish Agency itself.
The Midrasha is located within the former
Galitzky Synagogue, a structure built in 1909-1910 and confiscated by the
Soviet Union in 1930 for use as a workers' dining hall. In 2001, after the
factory supporting the dining hall declined under free market conditions, the
building was returned to the local Jewish community. Rabbi Mikhail Rosenfeld,
a native of Leningrad who emigrated to Israel as a child with his family,
directs the Midrasha, describing it as a Jewish program center attempting
to attract a multi-generational audience. Its core programs include: Shabbat
services, which attract about 40 people every week: young adult learning: two
music groups for children; youth groups, which also attract some participants
from Moldova and Belarus, who come for Shabbatons; and theater productions,
which include a mix of professional and volunteer actors. One of the featured
theater programs is a dramatized Purimspiel that is presented at the Midrasha,
the hesed, and several day schools. Youth groups, said Rabbi Rosenberg, focus
on building attachments to Israel and to Judaism, as well as training leaders.
The
Midrasha holds two seders, one in the Midrasha and one in a private home. It
also sponsors summer and winter camps for teenagers and university students, but
Rabbi Rosenfeld was uncertain that the summer camp would operate in 2014
because it had been scheduled for a site in Crimea, which probably is
inaccessible to Ukrainians now.
Rabbi
Mikhail Rosenfeld is pictured at right. The Galitzky shul, bottom left, houses
the Midrasha Tzionit. The largest space in the shul is the prayer hall,
designed originally to accommodate 400 people. The second floor contains a
women's balcony, a large multi-purpose room with a significant library in
locked glass cases, and several small offices. Photos: the writer.
 
Midrasha Tzionit collaborates with the Jewish
Agency in hosting programs about aliyah to Israel, especially now
because many local Jews are leaving Ukraine or at least are thinking about
leaving, said Rabbi Rosenfeld. Posters about Israel and Israeli flags are
prominently displayed throughout the building. The Midrasha will hold its own
Israel Independence Day celebration.
Rabbi Rosenfeld observed that attendance
at Midrasha Tzionit events had dropped considerably during the last several
months because people are worried about political instability and their own
safety on the streets. In general, he continued, tension is ever present and
strong.
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